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Songs of the Years

December 10, 2010

Here at the New Yorker office, we spend lots of time listening to music, but not very much time listening to Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians’ hit song “Collegiate.” That’s easy to explain, since the song was a hit all the way back in 1925. But it’s also a shame, in a way: 1925 was the year that The New Yorker published its first issue, and in all the years since, as issue after issue has appeared, more and more songs have been released. This year, as the holiday season approached, we were in a celebratory mood, and I decided to create a playlist for our holiday party composed of one song from every year of the magazine’s existence. I started with “Collegiate” and went on from there, with selections from many of the century’s giants (Duke Ellington, Johnny Cash, Michael Jackson), and many lesser-known artists (Norman Greenbaum, Gary Numan).

At the party, the mix worked like a charm. Jazz and blues greeted the early arrivals, and as the party picked up, the mood became romantic (thanks to the big-band and vocal recordings of the late thirties and forties), energetic (thanks to early rock and roll like Fats Domino and Jackie Brenston in the early fifties), funky (James Brown in 1973, Stevie Wonder in 1974), and kitschy (the eighties), after which it erupted into a bright riot of contemporary pop and hip-hop (Rihanna! Kanye! M.I.A.! Lil Jon!). It was rumored, though never proven, that party guests were leaving right around the songs that marked their birth years. To celebrate eighty-five years of music that The New Yorker has been pleased to exist alongside of, here’s our party playlist.

UPDATE: Several intrepid readers have created online playlists of most of the songs in the mix. Alexey Grozny‘s YouTube playlist is probably the most universally accessible of the bunch. Tom Whitwell and ulyssestone both created Spotify playlists (Europe only), and Patrick Filler made an Rdio playlist. See the comments below for more details. Thank you all!